Media study 1979

Research Design

The 1979 Media Study was coordinated by Jay Blumler and funded by the European Parlament, the European Cultural Foundation, the Commission of European Communities, the Danish Social Science Research Council, Stiftung Volkswagenwerk, the Dutch National Committee for Direct Elections, the Shell Grants Committee, and the Nuffield Foundation. It investigates the role of broadcasting in the 1979 European Elections. The study was conducted in the nine EU (then European Community) member states and collected information regarding the relevant persons or objects (i.e. institution, organization or group) and the themes mentioned in news items and current affairs programmes dealing with Europe, European Community, European Integration, European institutions, European elections, and political and economic aspects of other member countries.

The main outcome of the project was the book edited by Jay G. Blumler “Communicating to voters: television in the first European Parliamentary elections”. The data which lay the basis for the book was made publicly available with the help of Winfried Schulz, which is most gratefully acknowledged.

Unfortunately, the documentation for the study is not complete (the coding schemes for the TV channels and subthemes are missing), therefore we kindly ask researchers who have further information to contact the page administrators.